Free-Space Optical Communication System and Methods for Efficient Data Delivery

2. The terminal of claim 1, wherein a number of entries in the slot buffer is selected such that a round trip time measured from a start of forwarding for transmission a first data block of the retrieved each data block to receiving the feedback information indicating whether or not the first data block is requested to be retransmitted is less than an amount of time taken to transmit all data blocks identified in the slot buffer for one cycle through the slot buffer.

3. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the automatic repeat request controller is further adapted to automatically select the size of the data blocks based on average time scale of power fluctuations in the free space optical link, average duration over which data is received correctly over the optical link, average duration of signal drop-outs in the optical link, or some combination of these factors.

4. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the first optical transceiver is configured for a fiber-optic communication protocol.

6. The terminal of claim 5, further comprising a wavelength-division multiplexor to receive the first optical carrier wave and the second optical carrier wave and multiples the first optical carrier wave and second optical carrier wave onto a common optical path.

7. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the buffer is sized to store at least 1 gigabyte of data.

9. The terminal of claim 8, wherein the optics include an adaptive optics assembly to receive the first optical carrier wave, reduce wavefront distortions on the first optical carrier wave, and forward the first optical carrier wave to the first optical transceiver.

11. The terminal of claim 8, wherein the data buffer is sized to store at least 5 gigabytes of data.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising selecting the total number of first entries in the slot buffer such that it takes longer to cycle once through the slot buffer than for the automatic repeat request controller to forward the first data block of the plurality of data blocks for transmission and receive a feedback message identifying the first data block is to be retransmitted or is not to be retransmitted.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein receiving the optical communication signal comprises reducing wavefront distortion in the optical communication signal with an adaptive optic.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein a data rate of the first optical signal is at least 50 gigabits per second and the method further comprises sending the feedback information over an optical uplink to the transmitting terminal at a data rate less than 10 kilobits per second.